On Monday we had a Youth and Leadership day at RCN, designed, led and managed by the students themselves. It was attended by the first years of RCN with the aim to introduce them into a culture of participation and awareness of the role of leaders and their place within a team.

There were 8 workshops both of a practical and informative kind. We looked at the concept of Gender and Leadership as well as the the cultural implications of certain leadership styles. Active sessions were carried out as exposure to situations where teamwork was essential to success. These activities were rounded off with sessions on business leadership, taking initiative and on active listening.

In all it was a comprehensive set of workshops, put together to make it a thoughtful day. Hopefully the students of RCN will put some of the techniques and concepts into practice, and in doing so become more aware of their role and responsibilities within teams and ultimately as leaders for the future.

UWC Red Cross Nordic, the Norwegian Glacier Museum and 4H successfully applied to “den Naturlige Skolesekken” for a climate education pilot project. The first programme in the pilot project was a Climate Eyewitness Workshop at RCN. The workshop was organized by six of our students, coming from five different continents and was delivered for a class from Firda Vidaregåande Skule in Sandane. The workshop aimed to give a global perspective about climate change for Norwegian students through hearing different stories from all over the world and learning about how to make responsible, climate-friendly decisions in their personal life.

At the beginning of the workshop RCN students gave a presentation about climate change in general and its effects on their continents and home countries: Maldives, Morocco, Italy, Canada and Chile. After the discussion the students learned about possible solutions and heard about the Paris Climate Summit in 2015 in this context. The visitors from Firda made their own carbon pledges in groups, finding their on their own solutions, as the countries did in Paris.

Our eleventh Solidarity Half Marathon was held at the College on February 28th. From the start 21.1 km away on the road to Rysjedalsvika, twenty-five participants made their way from snowy roads in the higher ground down into bright sunshine and firmer footing in the latter stages.

Nik Schelling of Italy ran the fastest time ever recorded by a student from the College, crossing the finish line in 83 minutes and 53 seconds. Franco Byaruhanga of Uganda placed second in 93 minutes flat, followed by Vemund Baltzer of Norway in 98:18. The first female finisher was Marit Bick of Denmark.

The event takes place every year around the same time as the Sahara Marathon in the refugee camps in Western Algeria. Haja and Sumaya, who have grown up in those camps, helped with the arrangements, and were there at the finish to welcome all of the participants, which included one socially-conscious dog.

Click here for an album of pictures.